Highlights

First full-scale early Christian commentary on Scripture in the last 500 years

Created by a team of distinguished international network of Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox scholars, editors, and translators

Translated 293 ancient authors into English for the first time

Product Details

The Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (ACCS) is unlike anything else in your library. Created to be what could be referred to as the “Christian Talmud,” expert Bible scholars have placed thousands of commentary segments from the early church fathers exactly where they belong connected with Scripture. The scholars involved in this over 20 year project have a heart for the church today and also have deep knowledge of the early church fathers. They've edited, translated, footnoted, and reorganized truly ancient material in a way that is fresh, usable, teachable, and preachable.

Goals of the editors:

The renewal of Christian preaching based on classical Christian exegesis.

The intensified study of Scripture by lay persons who wish to think with the early church about the canonical text.

The stimulation of Christian historical, biblical, theological, and pastoral scholarship toward further inquiry into the Scriptural interpretations of the ancient Christian writers.

The early Christian church fathers, or patristics, were central to the creation of Christian doctrine and the establishment of the church in the first five centuries. During this time period, they humbly sought the revealed truth in the Scriptures. Studying their words has great value today for those who preach and teach.

Hundreds of volumes of pastristic writings have never been translated into English from their Latin and Greek. The editors of the ACCS have sifted through these works, translating the relevant and useful commentary of 293 ancient authors into English for the first time, just for the ACCS. Many of the original authors studied the Bible thoroughly with deep contemplative discernment, comparing text with text. The edtiors have respected this tradition by organizing them in a way to let them reflect on one another. This timeless material offers new lessons from the past and brings fresh inspiration. For example, John 1:1 has 40 commentary entries by different ancient authors.

This work provides an vital link of communication between all of us, whatever denomination, and our ancient ancestors in the faith.

You can read a sample of the book by clicking on the Sample button under the image of the book cover.

About the Series Editor

Thomas C. Oden (PhD, Yale University), is the general editor of the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture and the Ancient Christian Doctrine series as well as the author of Classic Christianity, a revision of his three-volume systematic theology. He is the director of the Center for Early African Christianity at Eastern University in Pennsylvania and he formerly served as the Henry Anson Buttz Professor of Theology at The Theological School of Drew University in Madison, New Jersey.

Oden is active in the Confessing Movement in America, particularly within the United Methodist Church and is president of The Institute for Classical Christian Studies. He suggests that Christians need to rely upon the wisdom of the historical Church, particularly the early Church, rather than on modern scholarship and theology and says his mission is "to begin to prepare the postmodern Christian community for its third millennium by returning again to the careful study and respectful following of the central tradition of classical Christianity."

Endorsements

For those who think that church history began around A.D. 1941, when their pastor was born, thiscommentary will be a great surprise.Christians throughout the centuries have read the biblical text and nursed their spirits with it and then applied it to their lives. These commentariesreflect that the witness of the Holy Spirit was present in his church throughout the centuries. As a result, we can profit by allowing the ancientChristians to speak to us today.Haddon Robinson, Harold John Ockenga Distinguished Professor of Preaching, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

One of the reasons for the hunger in Protestant hermeneutics is precisely this, that we have missed the correctives of other voices—of other historical periods and cultures. Part of what we are doing when we read Scripture with the fathers is expanding our cultural vision, the metaphors through which we can understand the Scripture text.Dr. Thomas C. Oden, General Editor, ACCS

Chronological snobbery—the assumption that our ancestors working without benefit of computers have nothing to teach us—is exposed as nonsense by this magnificent new series. Surfeited with knowledge but starved of wisdom, many of us are more than ready to sit at table with our ancestors and listen to their holy conversations on Scripture. I know I am.Eugene H. Peterson, James Houston Professor of Spiritual Theology, Regent College

Contemporary Christians would do well to draw the hermeneutical circle broadly enough to include not only cross-cultural voices from around the world but also the voices to be found in the Ancient Christian Commentary series. This is an excellent sermon-preparation resource for pastors.Christian Century, May 2, 2006

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